It is Thursday. That means it is CPR News day for me and Don DeBar. As always we talked about my Black Agenda Report column. This week in Vote Green I make the case for supporting the Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka ticket. In answer to the question about protest votes and wasted votes I say we must work towards getting rid of the democrats and replacing them with a real progressive party. There can be no more whining about a wish for another party. The time to build one is right now.

I am very much afraid of a Hillary Clinton presidency. I fear Donald Trump too but for different reasons. His racist appeals will unleash the undercover rednecks and that is a danger. But Hillary Clinton threatens WWIII. Everything is moot if we end up as nuclear ash.

We must organize and remain in constant struggle against them all. Step one is making an active commitment to replace the party which promises so much and does so little. You can listen to us here.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

UNAC released the following statement on the continuing horror inflicted by the United States in its regime change effort in Syria.

U.S. Bombs Syria Army Escalating Potential for War with Syria/Russia

The US-Russian negotiated cessation of hostilities has collapsed in Syria. The United States has intervened directly in ways that undermine any possibility of the ceasefire succeeding. On September 18, US forces, four Jets followed by a couple of helicopters, attacked a Syrian Arab Army (SAA) outpost near Deir Ezzor killing at least 82 soldiers and wounding 100 more and destroying their equipment This was supposed to be a joint operation to go after ISIS, but under cover of this attack ISIS fighters stormed the SAA position and took the hilltops where they were stationed.

Just after this unprecedented attack on the Syrian Army by the United States, Israel launched an attack on SAA positions in the Golan where they were fighting Al Nusra, killing and injuring several more Syrian soldiers.

The United States claimed that the attack was an accident. Even so, US allies, Australia, Denmark and the UK- have confirmed that they too took part. All are assisting in imperialist murder

The Russians called a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the US violation of both the current cessation of hostilities agreement' and the Geneva agreement on Syria. US Ambassador Samantha Power chose to boycott the meeting and instead held a press conference outside the door, which she opened by accusing the Russians of attacking civilians, schools and hospitals in Syria, before sarcastically accusing them of hypocrisy and calling the meeting a “stunt”. She dismissed the murder of nearly 100 Syrians without a pause. Powers indignation was clearly intended for her US audience as few others in the world would find her sarcasm and her rejection of the international forum for dialogue acceptable.

One day later, on September 19th, a UN Aid Convoy was struck while passing through opposition held territories in Aleppo, and 18 workers were killed. A video of the wreckage was posted on the internet by the White Helmets, a US supported NGO that operates only in ISIS and Al Qaeda territories. The United States immediately blamed the Syrian air force, then the Russian air force, and finally “the Russians,” who, after a few hours of public silence, released drone footage showing a truck armed with mortars riding in the shadow of the convoy as it entered hostile territory. They said that neither they nor the Syrians were in the vicinity of the convoy and that a full investigation would be necessary.

The US has moved from supporting proxies to direct intervention in Syria. It is the second time in as many months that they have killed nearly 100 Syrians in an air raid. They have betrayed a long negotiated treaty and when confronted, US Ambassador Samantha Power dissembled and attacked the messenger. It is clear that the United States remains committed to overthrowing the internationally recognized government of Syria. Pentagon planners have shown no respect whatsoever for international law or for the United States diplomatic commitments in Syria. They hope to prevent any resolution before a new president is inaugurated.

A few days before massacring the Syrian soldiers outside Deir Ezzor, the United States attempted to insert 300 Special Forces troops with Turkish backed Free Syrian Army factions in the town of Ra'i near the Turkish border. The Americans were driven out by an angry mob of men calling out their hatred of Americans in between cries of 'Allahu Akbar'. Later in the day, US bombers 'accidentally' struck a nearby town where the hostile organizations were billeted. Shortly thereafter, US special forces returned to the town of Ra'i to join the remaining Free Syrian Army groups there.

The United States has been holding up the cessation of hostilities from reaching a full implementation and clearly has no intention of honoring it. The Syrian military has stood down in the vicinity of Aleppo, yet the US has made only a halfhearted effort to separate their so called 'moderates' from the mercenaries and fanatics of Al Nusra/Al Qaeda.

The negotiation was a sham and now the US continues to dissemble, buying time to reinforce their proxies and put more US soldiers on the ground. The Pentagon is sowing the seeds of open warfare against the legitimate government of Syria (and the threat of war with Russia) while exacerbating the horrific humanitarian crisis of the Syrian people.

Last night I was interviewed by the Iranian network, Presstv. I discussed the latest video of police murder of a black person, this time in Charlotte, North Carolina. I have to say I felt a bit like an old broken record as I said the same things. The Obama justice department can prosecute cops, but he doesn't care and black people won't call him on it.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

I have fallen behind in posting my Community Public Radio news interviews with Don DeBar so this post is an effort to catch up. We usually discuss my Black Agenda Report columns but as I didn't write one for the first two weeks of September we discussed a variety of issues. On September 8th we talked about Hillary Clinton's email server scandal and why it is relevant. It says a lot about how corrupt she is, how she would govern and how the issue has the potential to derail her presidency should she win. You can listen here.

On September 15th we discussed my column Standing with Syria after Don gives a brief report on the U.N., Gaza and aid to Israel. I believe it is vital for the anti-war movement to stand with the Syrian government. There are too many people who believe they can't express opposition to American intervention without adding that they are not pro-Assad. President Assad has an obligation to protect his country from terrorists in the pay of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel. The United States presents the greatest danger to the Syrian people. More than 400,000 of them are dead and 9 million have been displaced by the regime change effort. It is not enough to say the fighting must stop. The American government calls the shots and the anti-war movement must be clear that the regime change project is responsible for the humanitarian crisis.

This past week I was moved to write about anti-Putin hysteria in the American corporate media. It is used quite cynically in an effort to promote Hillary Clinton's campaign. Anti-Putin Hysteria in Service to Hillary is the column and Don and I talk about it here.

Thursday, September 01, 2016

My column doesn't appear in this week's Black Agenda Report because I'm taking time to finish another project. I'll be back at BAR in mid-September. But no worries. BAR never disappoints.

This week you can find out why black self-determination should be a principal organizing position, what is going in Burundi, how republicans and democrats are alike, why Russian can't destroy a non-existent American democracy, the awfulness of the national anthem, and BAR radio on private prisons, debtors prisons, U.S. permanent war, left divergence on Syria and peace talks in the Philippines. Did I leave anything out? Probably. BAR always has a lot to say.

There has been much discussion about Syria lately and how the left should respond. I believe that while this debate is not new it has accelerated because of the presidential election and Hillary Clinton's determination to continute this war. Some "leftists" are finding it hard to break from the democrats. Hence the confusion and juvenile level of analysis.

At the end of my latest CPR News interview with Don Debar I pointed out the Russian's willingness to negotiate Assad's fate. In 2012 both president Vladimir Putin and his foreign secretary Sergei Lavrov publicly said they weren't wedded to Bashar al-Assad remaining as president of Syria. Their overtures were rejected publicly and privately and the carnage continued. It is important to keep this in mind the next time another denunciation of Putin makes the rounds.

In 2015 Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari repeated what the Russians had already said three years earlier. His confirmation that these discussions took place was considered newsworthy. Yet Vaska Tumir pointed out in Off Guardian this "news" was a subterfuge for the corporate media. They acted as though they never knew what the Russians had already said to them.

I don't think that Russia or anyone else should decide Syria's fate but we must have our facts in order. The U.S./NATO, Saudi, Qatari, Turkish, Israeli torment of Syria might have been stopped. But the empire would settle for nothing less than the destruction of that country.

Today I had my weekly conversation with Don Debar. We discussed debates among the left on Syria. I am unafraid of defending the Syrian government's right to defend their country from attack from U.S./NATO and their allies. Listen up.

Margaret Kimberley

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